"Familiar movie creature as a starting point for alien?" Topic

The second stage mutant of the classic graboid.

Insert a set or two sets of smaller arms in front of the legs and behind the jaws, maybe just under the face around the meaty section of the throat.

So what say you all? Interesting starting point?

At this given size also…not as tall as a man but certainly within the weight of an average adult male.

Absolutely!!!

I always thought that the Tremors' Shriekers had lots of potential.

This one seems to have centipede-like claws in the front:

link

Dan

A scale model picture :)

Yes. The classic Shrieker with T-Rex forelegs is definitely the way to go.

Dan

Foreleg manipulators are boringly terrestrial, and unless its sensory apparatus is even more unusual than the graboids (which is saying something) how well can it "see" to use them? Why not break the mold and do modified mouthparts as manipulators instead? The jaws are already designed to open insanely wide, plenty of room for multiple tentacular or even jointed finger-like tongues in there, and the critter's sensory array is already designed to focus on things the mouth is pointed at. Shift some fine-detail sensors (motion/heat/chemoreceptors?) onto smaller specialized tongues and/or sensor booms/eyestalks and you've got a plausible tool user that won't look like a dinosaur or plucked chicken with a head swap.

How about a mouthful of tongues that resemble the cluster of tentacles found with a Nautilus. There are specialized ones that serve a particular purpose.

(wiki clipped)
Tentacles

Nautilus tentacles differ from those of other cephalopods. Lacking pads, the tentacles stick to prey by virtue of their ridged surface. Nautiloids have a powerful grip. Attempts to take an object already seized by a nautilus may tear tentacles away from the creature, which remain firmly attached to the surface of the object. Two pairs of tentacles are separate from the other 90-ish, the pre-ocular and post-ocular, situated before and behind the eye. These are more evidently grooved, with more pronounced ridges. They are extensively ciliated and serve an olfactory purpose.

For a miniature it could have, 2-3 shallow sockets, these would be filled with various choices of tongues…with equipment, long weapon, short weapon, or empty tongue.

I like it. I'd buy some. Always a fan of Tremors.

The combination (op) of an original head that could well be of a not-vertebrate type with an 'ordinary' chicken body is… unlikely -reminds me of the tentacles replacing arms in the 'octogorilla' (sp.?) of old. Or, even more, reminds me of the hybrid creatures in Hieronymus Bosch's and Pieter Bruegel the Elder's paintings. Wild Fantasy / Nightmare but *not* SF, not even of 'Sword & Planet' type.

link
Salvador Dali instead of Giger.
The Dune SandWorms and their 'mini-me' the original 'Tremors' worms are far more likely.

Probably better to get inspiration from badly known worms -some submicroscopic- and 'blow' them up.

from: TMP link

link
Specially for the head and 'torso': one can always add 'abdomen' and 'limbs' from other *compatible* creatures.
Also, some very old fossils are inspirational (e.g. those from the Burgess Shale).

It could be a combined creature…symbiote…or an engineered species…hardy, tough, but limited due to the manipulators…combined to create the mouthful of options?

Hard crunchy outer shell, soft delicate mouthful of thin tongues, mmmmm sounds like a delicious chocolate confection…yummy!

:)

Here's a distant cousin:

browse.deviantart.com/?q=sewer creature&order=9&offset=144#/d2oece5

Dan

Might be fun to use the larger graboids as heavy assault troopers for the shrieker aliens regular troopers…surprise!